Do I have the legal right to ask for results to be forwarded from secondary care to my GP?

[John18]

I have regular blood tests done for my long term health condition. Most of these tests get done by my GP and I have online access to my GP record so I can usually see the results online the next day. In this case that works great. Thanks to this post for helping me find out how to request access: healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

I also go for a few outpatient appointments at my local hospital where I am under a consultant. Sometimes I have blood tests done at these appointments, but the results from those don't show up on my online primary care record. This is because the hospital holds the results in their system which is separate from my primary care record.

Do I legally have the right to ask the hospital to forward these results to my GP? If so then I would like to know the specific legislation or a link to an authoritative source would be helpful.

I know that I can write to the hospital and make a subject access request under the terms of the data protection act for the results, which I have done in the past, but it can take up to a month to get the results back which is a pain.

I was told by a friend who is a nurse, that if my consultant gives me a blood card (request form) which I then take to the phlebotomy room for the nurses to draw the blood, if I write on the blood card "Please forward results to GP" with my GP practice code, then the lab who receives the blood sample will forward the results to both the consultant and my GP. I have done this and it has worked.

However, if a nurse decides during an outpatient appointment that a blood test is required, I want to know if I have the legal right to ask them to write this on the blood card. This would help me greatly as I would then get the results the next day online rather than having to wait weeks for a subject access request to come back in the mail.

[Kes8]

If your GP is in the same CCG as the hospital they might be able to access the blood test results.

[John18 in reply to Kes8]

I have asked my GP this and they aren't able to access them unless the hospital explicitly pushes them to my GP.

[Angel_of_the_North]

I think you have the legal right to get the test results yourself, but not necessarily to get them sent to a third party. However, if it has previously worked, I don't see why it shouldn't with the outpatient scenario. Just get your results and give them to the GP.

[MaisieGray]

No, you don't have a legal right to obligate a nurse to write anything on documents pertaining to you. It would be madness if we could all go around telling nurses what to do. You have a legal right to access personal information, and for that information to be be made available to you in a timely manner and not later than the prescribed timescale of one month. The Govt's guidance to holders of personal data is "You should send them a hard copy - such as a printout or photocopy. If you received the request by email, you can send the information by email if the requester agrees." The legislation does not obligate them to send data information to third parties as you would prefer. Common sense says that one health provider would automatically update another health provider where they are both involved in the same aspect of a patient's care, but that's common sense not statute. I heard a fragment of an interview this week, with the new Health Minister Matt Hancock, and apparently his priority is technology, so who knows, we won't have better treatment but we may have a fantastic all singing all dancing new pan-NHS computer system ....

[John18 in reply to MaisieGray]

I thought that since my primary care record is my personal information then organisations have the legal responsibility under the terms of the data protection act to keep it correct and up to date.

From the data protection act: "Records should be 'accurate, up to date and kept no longer than is necessary'."

If my primary care record doesn't include results from my local hospital then it is not up to date or accurate. Therefore I would have thought that I have the legal right to ask that it is kept up to date by requesting my hospital to send results to my GP.

I am aware that I can access the results via a subject access request, and I have done so in the past, it takes 3-4 weeks to come back, but a 3-4 week delay in finding out my results makes them almost useless since it severely reduces my ability to act on those results and make changes.

[John18]

After doing some more of my own research I have found that I absolutely do have this right.

This is specifically mentioned in article 20.2 of the GDPR:

"In exercising his or her right to data portability pursuant to paragraph 1, the data subject shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from one controller to another, where technically feasible."

You can read more on article 20 here: gdpr.algolia.com/gdpr-artic...